I CAN DO HARD THINGS - THE WAR CHAPTERS

Hard things - This week's scripture reading will be a challenge for me.  These 9 chapters of Alma are sometimes called the "War Chapters."  I cannot read them without seeing Satan's hands in the war we are fighting today - and yes, we are at war! 

The War Chapters

I'd like to begin by quoting the Come Unto Me lesson manual for families and individuals:

Reading about the wars between the Nephites and Lamanites might be more meaningful to you if you look for parallels to your personal spiritual battles.  As you read Alma 43-52, notice what the Nephites did that made the successful (or unsuccessful). Then ponder how you can use what you learn to help you win your spiritual battles.  

I repeat: we are in a war, a war that began for the souls of men before the earth was created.  The war in which Satan and those who follow him are cast out of the presence of God for seeking to deny mankind its agency and seeking power and glory over God. The war that continues on earth today.  Satan has never changed his objectives - the captivity and misery of man and the thwarting of God's Plan.  He may alter techniques and move the battlefield, but he never changes his objective.  

In our war today, it is easy for one who has the Gift of the Holy Ghost to discern good from evil, no matter how Satan tries to frame it.  Those without the Spirit are easily deceived. Those without the Spirit frame sexual sins as "alternative lifestyles"; they speak of the out-and-out attack on America as "peaceful protest"; they spin and lie and mislead.  It is so blatant and obvious to those who see it as God sees it that it makes one wonder what in the world they are thinking! The point is, they are not thinking.  They are being strung along by lies and deceit and corruption until they don't know the difference between a man and a woman or a child and an adult. Someone under age is a child.  Sexual predation against such is never consensual because a child is cognitively unable to understand enough to give consent. That the verbal members of our society have been strung along so far that they accept such ridiculous notions as men can choose to be women and women, men - which flies in the face of, not just faith, but of biology and common sense.  It you have a Y chromosome, you are a man, no matter how you think you should be allowed to identify as something else.

The lesson goes on to say:

Notice how the Lamanites and the Nephite dissenters tried to defeat the Nephites.  These things can warn you about how the adversary might try to attack you.

This situation is not political alone.  It is not simply a difference of opinion.  It goes far beyond that.  We are in a war with the powers of Satan and those among us who are dissenters from God.  In the days of Captain Moroni, they did not succeed.  But the lies stayed alive and in the days of Mormon, they did succeed in the total destruction of the Nephite nation when the majority of the Nephites dissented from Jesus Christ and became even more wicked than their enemies. I see that today as American's rage against Americans.

I don't have a national pulpit from which to preach.  I have done posts on Social Media, but have found that those who are against the Lord have been so skewed by Satan that they cannot recognize the truth when it is presented.  Instead, people divide into stark camps of hatred and attack from behind, even when there is no evidence to support their claims.  These people make up their minds that they are going to hate a certain leader, and then go digging in the muck trying to find buried skeletons. So I will use Social Media only to post links to my blog. In my private life, I will do my best with the time I have been given, even though my best may be as small as a Hobbit.

We all have done things of which we are not proud.  Hopefully, as we mature, those things become fewer.  There is not a person outside of the Savior who doesn't have at least one skeleton in the closet. But to make a unrighteous judgment call based on mistakes that have been corrected is more than cruel; it is life-destroying.  

A story is told of two brothers who fought.  One was so off in his thinking that he sought to take his brother's life.  Over the course of many years, he changed, repented, and like the prodigal son came to himself.  One day while out in the streets, he was approached by two women who recognized him.  One of them said, "Aren't you the man who tried to kill his own brother?"  To which the man answered, "That was I but it is not I."  

Think about it.

© Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson August 2020